Singaraja- Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha (Undiksha) pays attention to developing the potential of athletes in Indonesia, one of which is for the petanque sport. Undiksha held the National Championship, which opened Saturday (29/10/2022). The event, titled 1st Rector’s Cup, was specifically for students.
This championship was facilitated by the Student Activity Unit or Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa (UKM) of Petanque Undiksha. Dozens of teams from 15 universities in Indonesia showed their abilities in the event, which took place at the Indonesian Petanque Sports Federation or Federasi Olahraga Petanque Indonesia (FOPI) field, Buleleng.
Head of the Committee, Made Shinta Wesiana Dewi explained that in this National Championship, a maximum of 24 teams per category would be competed, namely men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles. However, from the registration results, there were 23 men’s singles teams, 19 women’s singles teams, 20 men’s doubles teams and 15 women’s doubles teams. Teams in each category will compete for one gold medal, one silver medal and two bronze medals. “This event is to regenerate the spirit of training and become a trial arena for athletes who will compete in POMNAS as well as to commemorate Youth Pledge Day,” She explained.
This championship was opened by the Vice Rector for Student Affairs, Public Relations, and Alumni of Undiksha, Prof. Dr. I Wayan Suastra, M.Pd. According to him, this championship is a space to introduce athletes owned by Undiksha and other Universities related to petanque sports and to promote petanque sports in Indonesia further. More than that, it is also to hone the athletes’ abilities so that they are better prepared to participate in other competitions. “Right now, they will compete with other universities which of course have prepared well, so that our athletes will also be mentally trained so that later they will be more ready to take part in competitions at the national and international levels,” he said while adding that this championship is targeted to become a national agenda.
The head of FOPI Bali, I Nyoman Yamadhiputra, who attended the opening ceremony with the head of FOPI Buleleng, I Made Astika, also welcomed and appreciated Undiksha for organizing this championship. “We really appreciate Undiksha holding the first national student championship in Bali. This was initiated by Undiksha, this is extraordinary,” he said.
It is hoped that this championship can be held continuously to improve achievement and prepare athletes to compete in national and international championships. “Of course, if you dare to put the number one, it means that there will be a number two later. We hope this is a routine agenda for Undiksha, at least once a year so that all universities in Indonesia will schedule to come to Undiksha every year,” he said.
The man from Tabanan also added that the sport of petanque has only been developing in Indonesia since 2013. However, the community’s enthusiasm to engage in it, especially the younger generation, is quite high. “The evidence is like now, if we hold a championship between students, there will definitely be a lot of participants,” he added.
The opening ceremony was also attended by officials from the Indonesian National Sports Committee or Komite Olahraga Nasional Indonesia (KONI) of Buleleng. The championship will be held until October 30, 2022.
